In the wake of the alleged sarin attack by Bashar al-Assad’s government and the cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base by the U.S., we examine some of the relevant issues in the crisis, including and especially intelligence evaluations sharply divergent from the official version:

a). We begin with analysis of the area (Idlib) where the alleged Syrian government sarin attack took place. It is dominated by the Al-Nusra Front, the name given to Al-Qaeda in Iraq when it operates in Syria. Note that the top cleric in the Al-Qaeda held area is Abdullah Muhaysini, a Saudi cleric: ” . . . . who was a student [25] of Sulayman Al-Alwan, the Wahhabi cleric who oversaw what his Muslim critics have called a ‘terrorist factory [26]’ in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Qassim Province. Al-Alwan was also the instructor of the 9/11 hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari. . . .”

b.) Saddam and bin Laden worked out an arrangement in which Iraq—in order to provide for a payback capability if the U.S. ousted him—gave information about WMD’s to bin Laden’s people. Al Qaeda, in turn, was to act as a back-up unit for Saddam’s Iraq, striking at the United States if it knocked out Saddam. ” . . . . According to Arab sources, in anticipation of a foreseeable reversal of alliances in Kabul, bin Laden had been in discreet contact since September 2000 with associates of Oudai Hussein. . . . Bin Laden and the Iraqis are said to have exchanged information about chemical and biological weapons, despite the opposition of some of the Baghdad leadership, including Tarik Aziz. . . .”

c). Robert Parry notes in Consortium News that elements in the U.S. intelligence community do not agree with the Trump administration’s assessment of the situation. ” . . . . Alarm within the U.S. intelligence community about Trump’s hasty decision to attack Syria reverberated from the Middle East back to Washington, where former CIA officer Philip Giraldi reported hearing from his intelligence contacts in the field that they were shocked at how the new poison-gas story was being distorted by Trump and the mainstream U.S. news media. Giraldi told Scott Horton’s Webcast: ‘I’m hearing from sources on the ground in the Middle East, people who are intimately familiar with the intelligence that is available who are saying that the essential narrative that we’re all hearing about the Syrian government or the Russians using chemical weapons on innocent civilians is a sham.’ . . .”

d.) Parry also notes that some analysts are reporting a strike by a drone launched from a joint Saudi-Israeli base that supports Syrian rebels. ” . . . Despite some technical difficulties in tracing its flight path, analysts eventually came to believe that the flight was launched in Jordan from a Saudi-Israeli special operations base for supporting Syrian rebels, the source said, adding that the suspected reason for the poison gas was to create an incident that would reverse the Trump administration’s announcement in late March that it was no longer seeking the removal of President Bashar al-Assad. . . .”

e.) Parry concludes one of his articles with a scathing analysis of the Trump administration’s claims by a MIT researcher: ” . . . . In a separate analysis of the four-page dossier, Theodore Postol, a national security specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, concluded that the White House claims were clearly bogus, writing: ‘I have reviewed the document carefully, and I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria at roughly 6 to 7 a.m. on April 4, 2017. In fact, a main piece of evidence that is cited in the document points to an attack that was executed by individuals on the ground, not from an aircraft, on the morning of April 4. This conclusion is based on an assumption made by the White House when it cited the source of the sarin release and the photographs of that source. My own assessment, is that the source was very likely tampered with or staged, so no serious conclusion could be made from the photographs cited by the White House.’ . . . ”

f.) Detailed analysis of an August, 2013 sarin attack, originally thought to have been perpetrated by Bashar Al-Assad, was presented by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books. The sarin turns out not to have come from Syrian government stockpiles. “. . . . Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. . . .”

g.) Al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda), on the other hand, was producing Sarin and looking to ramp up production through a supply pipeline running through Turkey. ” . . . . The American and British intelligence communities had been aware since the spring of 2013 that some rebel units in Syria were developing chemical weapons. On 20 June analysts for the US Defense Intelligence Agency issued a highly classified five-page ‘talking points’ briefing for the DIA’s deputy director, David Shedd, which stated that al-Nusra maintained a sarin production cell: its programme, the paper said, was ‘the most advanced sarin plot since al-Qaida’s pre-9/11 effort’. . . .”

h.) The 2013 conclusions of general Martin Dempsey are worth examining in the context of the current crisis: ” . . . . From the beginning of the crisis, the former intelligence official said, the joint chiefs had been skeptical of the administration’s argument that it had the facts to back up its belief in Assad’s guilt. They pressed the DIA and other agencies for more substantial evidence. ‘There was no way they thought Syria would use nerve gas at that stage, because Assad was winning the war,’ the former intelligence official said. . . .”

2. Review of Graham E. Fuller’s support for the economic values of the Muslim Brotherhood and his strange support for Bernie Sanders, whose values are the opposite of those espoused by Fuller.

3. The fact that war in the Middle East raises oil prices–this to be seen against the background of Rex Tillerson being Secretary of State (previously CEO of Exxon/Mobil). ” . . . . For investors like Mr. Abdullah, conflict in the Middle East means one thing: higher oil prices. ‘It’s always good for us,’ he says. . . .”

4. Robert Parry’s view that the omission of CIA director Mike Pompeo and other top U.S. intelligence officials from a photo of Trump’s top advisors is indicative of dissent within the intelligence community from the official version of the attack.

Against the background of Trumpian political volatility made manifest in Syria, we look at St. Bernard [Sanders] and the implications of actions he has taken. This program is presented in the context of the “shock to the system” that Steve Bannon and other Trump advisers see as necessary and imminent.

After detailing more about the Hungarian fascist manifestations of Sebastian Gorka, the Trump administration’s point man for counter-jihadism, the program turns to the possible use of the Sanders campaign as a vehicle for the GOP to infiltrate and/or maneuver jihadist elements into prominence in the Democratic Party.

In numerous programs, we have noted the suppression of Operation Green Quest, which targeted individuals and institutions linked to the Al-Taqwa/Muslim Brotherhood milieu on the one hand, and to the Karl Rove/Grover Norquist-generated Islamic Free Market Institute on the other. Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and Graham E. Fuller, the Muslim Brotherhood’s and jihadis’ most significant backer in the intelligence community, factor into this analysis:

1. Rove financed Sanders campaign through the American Crossroads super-PAC. ” . . . American Crossroads—founded by former Bush adviser Karl Rove—and several other conservative-backed super PACs have spent the last month intentionally fueling the Bern, but their zeal has more to do with an effort to weaken Hillary Clinton, whom they still see as the likely Democratic nominee and harder to defeat in the general election. . . . Crossroads is one of several groups that has released ads that have been aimed at branding Sanders as the only true progressive in the race—a strategy the Vermont senator’s campaign also embraces. . . .”

2. Graham E. Fuller says that he was ” . . . . galvanized at watching the spectacle of Bernie Sanders proclaiming issues in his campaign that had been virtually off limits for political discussion for decades: gap between rich and poor, rapacious international trade deals, a fair wage, free university education, the call for US balance (gasp!) in handling the Arab-Israeli, issue, etc. The great thing about Bernie — even if he probably won’t get nominated — is that he has pushed hawkish, friend-of-Wall-Street Hillary to the left. . . .”

3. Fuller’s actual views are the opposite of Sanders policy points: “. . . Fuller comes from that fac­tion of CIA Cold War­riors who believed (and still appar­ently believe) that fun­da­men­tal­ist Islam, even in its rad­i­cal jihadi form, does not pose a threat to the West, for the sim­ple rea­son that fun­da­men­tal­ist Islam is con­ser­v­a­tive, against social jus­tice, against social­ism and redis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth, and in favor of hier­ar­chi­cal socio-economic struc­tures. Social­ism is the com­mon enemy to both cap­i­tal­ist Amer­ica and to Wah­habi Islam, accord­ing to Fuller. . . ‘There is no main­stream Islamic organization…with rad­i­cal social views,’ he wrote. ‘Clas­si­cal Islamic the­ory envis­ages the role of the state as lim­ited to facil­i­tat­ing the well-being of mar­kets and mer­chants rather than con­trol­ling them. Islamists have always pow­er­fully objected to social­ism and communism….Islam has never had prob­lems with the idea that wealth is unevenly dis­trib­uted.’ . . . .”

4. Faisal Gill, a former operations director for Norquist’s Islamic Free Market Institute and official with George W. Bush’s Department of Homeland Security is now the head of Vermont’s Democratic Party, a post he has used to join Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard to promote Keith Ellison as head of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison is now the deputy chair of the DNC, the post formerly held by Gabbard. ” . . . . Yet some officials remain concerned that Gill apparently enjoys the political protection of Norquist, the architect of the 1994 Republican election sweep that brought Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich to power as House speaker. Norquist speaks of ‘crushing’ his political opponents and dismisses those who don’t agree with his anti-tax, anti-government agenda as ‘Bolsheviks.’ His power derives from a formidable coalition of evangelical, business and other conservative groups that he controls to push favored GOP issues, as well as from his close relationship with White House political chief Karl Rove. . . .”

The program also notes a number of other things about the Sanders campaign:

1. He was promoting open primaries for the Democratic Party, which would enable Karl Rove and the Republicans to choose the Democratic nominee.

2. Sanders was a Presidential elector for the Socialist Workers Party, embracing a stance which would have made him terminally vulnerable had he gotten the Democratic nomination. ” . . . . In 1980, Sanders served as an elector for the Socialist Workers Party, which was founded on the principles of Leon Trotsky. According to the New York Times, that party called for abolishing the military budget. It also called for “solidarity” with the revolutionary regimes in Iran, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Cuba; this was in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis. . . .”

3. The SWP was a vehicle for infiltration and the acquisition of a “left cover” by Nazis and spooks, including Lee Harvey Oswald.

4. The Third Reich saw Leon Trotsky’s methodology as worthy of emulation. (The SWP is a Trotskyite political party.) ” . . . . ‘You should read his books,’ he [Hitler] barked. ‘We can learn a lot from him.’ . . .”

5. To what extent have the GOP and the overlapping Underground Reich focused on Sanders (without his knowledge) as a vehicle for infiltrating the Democratic Party? In FTR #’s 941, 942 and 945, we noted the numerous fascist connections of Tulsi Gabbard, one of the driving forces behind Sanders’ ascent. To what extent has the Trotskyite template served as a vehicle for Gabbard, and, perhaps, Ellison to infiltrate the Democratic Party?

Bringing up to date topics covered in previous programs and posts, this broadcast begins with further coverage of the development of UFOs–so-called “flying saucers.” They were observed at the Roswell and Area 51 military bases and described as having been developed by the CIA, not “space aliens.”

In numerous posts and programs, we have noted that the GOP/Underground Reich element of U.S. intelligence has used Muslim Brotherhood-derived jihadis as proxy warriors and armed heralds of corporatist economics. In that context, we highlight the frankly suspicious release of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s immigration file–only 206 of 651 pages were released in their entirety.

The use of Islamists as proxy warriors also bears consideration in light of law enforcement’s casual attitude toward 17 Muslim men who fired “hundreds of shots” and were “chanting” in the early morning hours in a park in San Bernardino County in California. Why wasn’t the FBI more concerned?

With tensions rising in the Western Pacific between the U.S. and China, newly-elected Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte harbors deep resentment of the U.S. over the extraction of a self-proclaimed CIA agent who incurred criminal charges in Mindanao while apparently looking for Golden Lily loot in the Islands.

After detailing yet another “suicide” of a key executive of Swiss Re, we present a significant analysis of the recent replacement of the head of the Israeli Defense Force with Avigdor Lieberman, the head of a far-right wing Israeli political party: “Israel has been ‘infected by the seeds of fascism,’ he [former Prime Minister Ehud Barak] said.”

Program Highlights Include: The CIA’s use of Gerhard von Mende, Nazi Germany’s top official coordinating Islamist forces working for the Third Reich; The Carl Duisberg Society’s sponsorship of Mohamed Atta associate and Chechen jihadi Mohamedou Ould Slahi.

Continuing our analysis of an overlapping series of massive covert operations in the Earth Island utilizing Muslim Brotherhood-based Sunni jihadists and intersecting Pan-Turkist elements, we analyze the genesis of ISIS. Stemming from a covert operation in which elements of CIA, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood are operating in Southern Turkey to enable jihadists in Syria, ISIS appears to be something of a Frankenstein’s monster. Envisioned as a Salafist principality in Eastern Syria to destabilize the Assad regime, the Islamic State used AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) infrastructure to spread into Iraq, threatening the “gains” of the misguided U.S. invasion of that country. Now, this Islamist Frankenstein’s monster is attacking the West, driving the political spectrum in Europe and the United States rightward. That reaction, in turn, is fueling Muslim alienation to the delight and benefit of ISIS. Program Highlights Include: ISIS chief Al-Baghradi’s “former” membership in the Muslim Brotherhood; the decisive role of Chechen fighters in ISIS; the alliance of UNA-UNSO fighters (Pravy Sektor) in Chechnya and Georgia; ISIS’s use of Bitcoin to stash their financial assets; ISIS’s use of an encrypted Berlin-based messaging service for its communiques; an oblique endorsement of ISIS by the chief of Turkish intelligence; review of the re-direction of the anti-Soviet jihadist effort in Afghanistan to anti-Russian combat in Chechnya; review of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s endorsement of using jihadists against Russia in the Caucasus and China in central Asia.

Stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar, all across Europe, most of the Middle East, Eurasia, Russia, China and India, that stretch of land known as the “Earth Island”: comprises most of the world’s land mass; contains most of the world’s population and most of the world’s natural resources (including oil and natural gas.) Geopoliticians have long seen controlling that land mass as the key to world domination. In this broadcast, we examine what might be termed political strange bedfellows grouped together against Russia and China and advancing an apparent Underground Reich and corporatist agenda in parts of Russia and China. In addition to the Tibetan Buddhist milieu of the Dalai Lama, Uighur Muslims associated with Al Qaeda and the Pan-Turkist movement are ranked together under the banner of the UNPO and the House of Habsburg. Active in Ukraine, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries, the Habsburgs appear to be a coordinating executive element mobilizing the diverse ethnic groups working against Russia and China. Program Highlights Include: OUN/B operative Paula Dobriansky’s control of the Tibet Desk at the State Department; Uighur links to Al Qaeda and other Muslim Brotherhood offshoots; review of the Dalai Lama’s historical relationships with the SS and the CIA; review of Peter Levenda’s concept of “weaponized religion;” support for the Uighurs by the Pan-Turkist and fascist National Action Party; Erkin Altepkin’s alliances with the Habsburg milieu, the Dalai Lama and elements of Western intelligence; the growing presence of ISIS-affiliated fighters from Chechnya in the Ukrainian conflict.

Discussion of Islamist terrorists has pointedly omitted the perpetrators’ links to the Muslim Brotherhood–the Islamic fascist organization that spawned groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. Portrayed in the West as a “moderate’ organization, the Muslim Brotherhood was allied with the Axis in World War II and nurtured as anti-communist cadre by Western Intelligence (CIA in particular) during the Cold War. Much of the program reviews and details the corporatist and free market economic philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood, an ideology that endears the Ikhwan to powerful political and economic interests in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West. Among the events that has been obscured by the passage of time is the open opposition to the Treasury Department’s attempts at interdicting terrorist financing money, on the grounds that it would “restrict” the free-flow of international capital. Brotherhood elements continue to be used as proxy warriors by elements of Western and Saudi intelligence in places like Syria, the Caucasus and China’s Xinjiang Province. Program Highlights Include: The use of ISIS-linked Chechen fighters in Ukraine; Saudi Bin Laden Group’s use of Sullivan and Cromwell as its general counsel; Sullivan & Cromwell’s work on behalf of the financial institutions that were (successfully) resisting the Treasury Department’s attempts at interdicting terrorist financing; review of the forced resignation of Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill following the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids.

With another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks having passed, it is interesting to contemplate the ongoing damage from the unlearned lessons concerning those attacks. Before discussing ongoing support for Caucasian and Chechen jihadist elements by elements of U.S., Western and Saudi intelligence, the program highlights the bogus intelligence about a supposed “Russian invasion” of Ukraine that does not appear to have occurred at all. Much of the supposed intelligence on this “invasion” comes from satellite photos, showing what are supposed to be Russian armored and artillery elements in Ukraine. These photos are NOT from U.S. reconnaissance satellites, but come from a private company–DigitalGlobe. Founded by veterans of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program (The Strategic Defense Initiative), the company’s executives have CV’s involving work for Bain (Mitt Romney’s firm) and IHS, the Thyssen/Bornemisza group firm that is the epicenter of the Peak Oil doctrine. Accessing archival information about support for Chechen Islamists by elements of U.S., Western and Saudi intelligence, the program notes the involvement of Ukrainian fascists from the UNA/UNSO organization in Chechnya and the Caucasus. The reported combat expertise of ISIS is said by some analysts to have evolved from the participation in that group of Chechen veterans, making our slippery slope involvement against the group blowback–to an extent–from the West’s proxy warriors in the Caucasus. As was the case in Afghanistan–where the U.S. fought a bloody, indecisive war against jihadists crafted to fight against the U.S.S.R. and subsequently Russia–we once again find American military forces engaged against jihadists being used as proxy warriors by elements of the transnational corporate elite and allied national security elements. The program concludes with a closer look at the historical background to some recent propaganda in the New York Times’ op-ed page, ascribing Russian responsibility to the 1999 assassinations of Armenian political leaders by the Dashnags, an Armenian nationalist group with longstanding historical links to Ukrainian fascists and other elements of international fascism and the Underground Reich.

Political comedian Mort Sahl (one of New Orleans DA Jim Garrison’s investigators into the JFK assassination) asked in his autobiography “Heartland”; “How many lies can you allow yourself to believe before you belong to the lie?” In the gathering storm in Ukraine, decades of institutional lying from the Second World War, through the Cold War and into the present appears to have gained ownership over contemporary America. Having taken in the intelligence and political residua of the Third Reich and its Central and Eastern European allies, America resurrected and perpetuated the political and ideological banner of fascism. Adhering to grossly and deliberately distorted intelligence during the Cold War, the political landscape evolving from that distortion is governing contemporary perceptions and actions. This program updates the actions of the OUN/B heirs in Ukraine and their political and ideological allies elsewhere in the former Warsaw Pact countries. At the core of this analysis is the nurturing of the Hitler-conceived Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations within Western intelligence and the GOP, its projection into Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. during the final stages of the Cold War and and how we are now dominated by the political Frankenstein’s monster we created in that part of the world.